Some conventional methods for determining if a wireless device is within range of a receiver or data aggregator are limited to relatively high power consumption edge devices and are not concerned with the limitation of high power consumption visual displays that would be used to display the wireless connectivity. Other conventional methods use a light emitting diode for signal strength indication, but are specific to devices using PCMCIA interfaces or implementing signal strength indication at repeaters rather than edge devices. These methods do not address wireless edge devices, which have special considerations due to low power consumption requirements.
Further, conventional techniques for signal strength indication are not dynamic and tailored for installation or network setup or are specific to a setup using other signal analyzer hardware. For example, one conventional method places test antennas in a building and then, using the measurements from the test antennas, creates an optimized network of fixed antennas established at indicated locations within the building.
Because of cost and power consumption limitations, low power wireless edge devices or sensor nodes do not have user interfaces such as LCD screens for providing wireless signal strength indication. Therefore, such edge devices do not communicate signal strength to a user directly at the device. Rather, signal strength is indicated at a reception or data aggregation point where a user interface or computer can easily be used to display signal strength. Although this approach may be useful for monitoring a network over time, this approach is not suited for deploying or installing a network of edge devices or rearranging such a network. This is because in low power networks the wireless reception is not always guaranteed or known prior to setup, and some level of experimentation in positioning of the wireless edge device and or its antenna is required. This problem is particularly relevant in large scale wireless networks because the wireless edge devices are generally far from the data aggregation or user interface points. In this case, the sensor position and signal strength are not evaluated by the same person, which then requires remote communication between two technicians. This may lead to inefficient, inaccurate, and incorrect setups.
It may be desirable to enable a user controlling a position of a wireless device in a wireless network to evaluate wireless signal quality at the device in real-time while the user is moving in a facility. This disclosure describes a method of using a visual indicator, includes LEDs, to show the near real-time status of the wireless signal quality at the device.